[5] In July 1549, the Vicar of Chipping Norton, Henry Joyes or Joyce, led parishioners in a popular rising after the suppression of chantries and other religious reforms left him to minister alone to a congregation of 800 and reduced the budget for schooling.

[9][10] Wool in the Middle Ages made the Cotswolds one of England's wealthiest parts and many of the medieval buildings survive in the centre of Chipping Norton.

Many original houses round the market place received fashionable Georgian façades in the 18th century.

Stone experimented with preparations of powdered willow bark on people in the town for five years.

He found it to be as effective as Peruvian bark and a cheaper domestic version, and in 1763 he sent a report of his findings to the Royal Society in London.

[13] A blue plaque commemorating his work is displayed on a building in West Street near the Fox Hotel.

The business moved in 1849 to a larger brewery in Albion Street that included a malthouse and its own water wells.

Extending the railway from Chipping Norton involved a tunnel 685 yards (626 m) long under Elmsfield Farm west of the town.

(See Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981) In May 1873, rioting occurred after the sentencing of the Ascott Martyrs – 16 local women accused of trying to interfere with strikebreakers at a farm.

[20][21] Until May 2024, Chipping Norton was in the Witney parliamentary constituency, whose Member of Parliament from 2001 to 2016 was David Cameron, prime minister from 2010 to 2016 and leader of the Conservative Party from 2005.

One Conservative and two Labour councillors represent the town on West Oxfordshire District Council.

Prior to that, the town had been a lower status seigneurial borough, controlled by the lord of the manor.

[32] It continued as a furniture warehouse before being spotted by two Royal Shakespeare Company actors, Tamara and John Malcolm, in 1968.

In 1973, fundraising for the new theatre began in earnest, and a pantomime, Beauty and the Beast was staged in the town hall.

[37] The town acts as a retail and leisure centre, with three supermarkets and numerous shops, including branches of national chain stores.

[41] The first XV of Chipping Norton Rugby Union Football Club[42] plays in the Southern Counties North League.

Chipping Norton has a purpose-built veterinary hospital, serving the community and the local zoos.

[45] The hospital has a boarding cattery, a CT Scanner, and hosts one of only 15 radioiodine treatment units for hyperthyroid cats in the UK.

Chipping Norton Town ("The Magpies" or "Chippy") was founded in 1893 and plays at Walterbush Road.

[54] The nave of St Mary’s Church in Chipping Norton, built circa 1485, is described by Pevsner as being one of the finest interiors in the county.

At the east end of the south aisle is a large Decorated window which is thought to have been brought from the demolished Bruern Abbey in Oxfordshire.

Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty, In The Army Now by Status Quo, Too Shy by Kajagoogoo, I Should Have Known Better by Jim Diamond, Perfect by Fairground Attraction, I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight by Cutting Crew and Bye Bye Baby by the Bay City Rollers were recorded there.

Pulham's Coaches operate both the 801 to Cheltenham via Moreton-in-Marsh, Bourton-on-the-Water and Andoversford, and the X9 service to Witney via Chadlington, Charlbury and Finstock.

There is also a longstanding community newspaper, The Chipping Norton News, which is staffed by a volunteer team and published monthly.

Several media, political and show-business acquaintances living near the town, including former British Prime Minister David Cameron, have been called the "Chipping Norton set".